Author: Anthony

The horror visited upon children by the Catholic Church is now been completely ignored by those with the power to bring justice to the victims. Instead, all discussion is focused on the relatively minor matter of resignations.

Dave O’Connell, editor of the Connacht Tribune, thinks that calls for resignations are a bit extreme.

We need to see the Garda inquiry reach whatever findings it can do on this and then whatever criminal investigation, criminal action or whatever resignations need to take place should take place at that point.

Enda Kenny’s call at this time is a little bit premature. I don’t claim to have read the report in graphic detail. I wouldn’t like to be seen to be defending or in any way condoning but I don’t think he has emerged from this in a position whereby a resignation is the best way forward for him (The bishop of Galway).

I have no axe to grind for him I don’t know him at all but I think that we have to have some measured reaction to this.

By all means when the Garda inquiry is completed if people are found to have been in any way complicit on this, yes they must resign and face whatever legal and court action but I think at this point in time there’s nothing to be served particularly from a resignation of the bishop of Galway.

O’Connell hasn’t read the graphic details of the report, he thinks we should have a measured reaction to the wholesale rape of children and he thinks that no purpose is served by resignations.

Here’s a mad guess: No child of Dave O’Connell’s has ever been raped by a priest, no bishop has ever provided protection for a priest that raped a child of Dave O’Connell’s.

A nun from the institution delivered the complainant to him for the purposes of permitting the abuse.

The complainant alleged that the nun was complicit in the abuse on these occasions and that the nun herself participated in the abuse and watched it taking place.

She alleged that she was gang-raped by three or four men in that house and that Fr Cassius was one of the participants in the rape.

It’s critical, I believe, when considering the Murphy Report to keep two things in mind at all times.

Firstly, the absolute horror, helplessness and fear experienced by the children as they were abused and secondly that the official reaction to the report is exactly as can be expected from the ruling regime of a corrupt state.

A standard part of that reaction involves endless talk and analysis coupled with endless inquiries but never, ever, any direct action.

Here’s Garda Commissioner, Fachtna Murphy, commentating on the recently announced inquiry by the assistant Garda commissioner (Six One News, 4th report, 2nd item).

He will examine handling of the complaints and the handling of the investigation and not just by the Gardai alone but by church and state authorities and he will report to me with his recommendations.

So when I get that report from the assistant commissioner I will consult with the Director of Public Prosecutions to see if criminal liability arises.

So, after three years of detailed and exhaustive investigation by Judge Yvonne Murphy culminating in overwhelming evidence of serious crimes the state launches an inquiry into the findings of that inquiry.

The Garda commissioner then tells us that when that inquiry is complete, let’s be generous and give it another three years, he will consult (conduct an inquiry) with the DPP to see if criminal liability arises.

The DPP will then consult himself and his advisors (yet another inquiry), over a couple of years, by which time the whole scandal will be forgotten and quietly dropped.

The following extract from the report provides us with a good idea of how this strategy works. The extract concerns a renegade priest who was sent to America after becoming an ‘embarrassment’ (Judge Murphy’s emphasis).

The bishops decided to let him go to the USA. They, in effect, set him loose on the unsuspecting population of Stockton, California.

Monsignor Stenson noted in a contemporaneous memo that the garda inspector, on being informed that Mr ? was in the USA, commented that this made his task much easier in that “they will hardly send me to America for him”.

That same afternoon, the inspector called to Archbishop‟s House and, according to Monsignor Stenson‟s contemporaneous notes, 338,
informed Monsignor Stenson:

“The Guards are aware that should the matter surface in the Sunday World in two or three years time it is important for them to have covered their tracks. Hence the present enquiry”.

Less than 24 hours after the Ryan Report into child abuse by the Catholic Church was published the country went into denial.

Instead of discussing the holocaust of horrors that took place within Catholic concentration camps the ruling elite and much of the media focused entirely on the question of how much extra money should be paid to the victims.

The same strategy is being followed with the publication of the Murphy Report.

Instead of immediately arresting the bishops involved including Cardinal Connell and putting them on trial the ruling elite and most of the media is focused entirely on the question of whether those involved should resign.

The dishonest and manipulative Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said it’s up to the bishops themselves. The so called leader of our nation Brian Cowen says it’s up to the church, nothing to do with him and bishop Murray, one of those named, says it’s up to the people and priests of his parish.

The message is clear –the Catholic Church must be protected no matter how heinous the crime.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin is a dishonest, slyly manipulative defender of the obnoxious and evil organisation of which he is an enthusiastic member – the Catholic Church.

Martin and his church, with the full cooperation of the State, have been planning their strategy since last January to minimise the impact of this report and they have been largely successful in their aim.

Archbishop Martin is no different from his predecessors in that his principal concern is for the good of the Catholic Church rather than justice for the abused children.

Apologies slip easily off his well trained tongue but when hard questions are put to him he simply comments on the question or talks about something else. He launched his defence of the Catholic Church with these words:

As Archbishop of Dublin and as Diarmuid Martin a person I offer to each and every survivor my apology, my sorrow blah blah blah…

This was the only occasion when the Archbishop spoke of himself as a person rather than as a defender of the evil organisation that he represents.

For example when he was asked whether those responsible for the cover up should resign he couldn’t find it within himself to speak as an ordinary decent human. Instead he weakly mouthed that it was up to the bishops themselves.

A genuinely sympathetic human would instinctively know, and say, that those responsible for the horrific abuse of children should resign forthwith.

When asked on Prime Time how those who knew failed to act for so long he said:

Those who took those decisions knew what were crimes in Canon law and civil law and knew what was immoral and for some reason or other misread reality.

For some reason or other misread reality? Are these the words of a normal human being who fully understands the import of what has occurred – I don’t think so?

Abuse surviver Marie Collins, who rightly claims that the leadership of the Catholic Church is still the same, that nothing has changed, exposed Archbishop Martin’s dishonesty on Six One News (1st report 7th item).

The archbishop was asked if this could happen again and replied:

New norms are in place but they require that people really commit themselves. We have the possibility of the National Office and the HSE verifying any decisions I make. I’m pleased to have that double verification in place when I’m implementing the policies.

Marie Collins shot that down immediately:

The Vatican has not given recognition to the norms now in place which means they are not enforceable. This means there’s no sanction that can be taken against a bishop who decides not to follow the current norms.

Martin continued:

Anything I do can be examined by the national board and HSE and they can make matters public if I’m not carrying things out.

Again, Marie Collins exposed the lie.

The national board is not allowed to name a bishop or his diocese that are non compliant with the rules.

Archbishop Martin did not refute this claim but, characteristically, went on to talk about another matter.

This exchange tells us that the Catholic Church is still the same, still in denial, still refusing to put proper safeguards in place to protect children, still putting the interests of the church above everything.

It also tells us the State has learned nothing, that it has no problem in continuing to place the safety of children in the hands of a warped institution peopled by warped minds

The report of the Commission of Investigation into the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin has been published.

Over the next week or so we will see the usual Catholic fundamentalists coming out from under their rocks to deny, excuse and justify the horror that their particular superstition spawns.

People like Breda O’Brien, Mary Kenny, John Waters and David Quinn will spout the usual nauseating defence which, predictably, will include the following:

It wasn’t just the church; the State was to blame too.
Only a small percentage of priests were guilty of abuse.
It was the culture of the time.
All of society is to blame.
The church didn’t realise that abuse of children was wrong.